The Fall 2019 Manga Guide

Cats of the Louvre

What's It About? 

The Louvre, one of the world's greatest art museums, has its share of secrets. Among them are the cats who live in its attic. Cared for by the security guards, this feral cat colony is made up of strays, lost souls, and descendants of palace cats, and at night the world belongs to them. Among the is Snowbébé, a white cat with heterochromatic eyes who still looks like a kitten despite being six years old. What is the secret behind his appearance? How is it related to the child who could hear the voices of the paintings and vanished fifty years ago? The answers await in the silent hallways of the Louvre after dark. Cats of the Louvre is written and illustrated by Taiyo Matsumoto. It was published by Viz in September and sells for $29.99 (hardcover) or $19.99 (digital).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

I give this book a four with the very important (to me, at any rate) caveat that if you are the sort of person who can't stand it when an animal is hurt in fiction, this will be a little hard to read. That certainly was the case for me in a few places, and given that the story is about a feral cat colony living in the attics of the Louvre in Paris and that it's by Taiyo Matsumoto, who rarely skimps on the harsher realities of a situation, it is within its rights to be there. But I could absolutely see it ruining the book for some readers.

That aside, Cats of the Louvre is fascinating. It reads a bit like a cat-centric version of E. L. Konigsberg's classic children's novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler in that it takes place inside a museum where people (cats) are living; there's even a scene that could be an homage to Konigsberg where two kids sneak off from their tour and play in a display of antique furniture. Like the children in that novel, the cats here lead a secret existence in the pieces of the Louvre that still remember being a home, living in the attics by day and venturing out at night. One cat, Snowbébé (an odd mix of French and English), is fascinated by the art itself, and he seems to be able to venture inside the pictures, which may be preventing him from aging. This parallels another plot thread in the book, that of a little girl who also stopped aging and vanished fifty years ago. In the present day her younger brother is a security guard at the museum and is convinced that she slipped inside a painting and never came out.

The question, then, is whether or not being able to hear the voices of the paintings, to literally immerse yourself in art, isn't taking things too far. Where do you draw the line between art and reality? Where should you? The manga itself plays with this notion by going back and forth between drawing the cats as felines and as humans with a few cat features; it deliberately seems to be blurring the lines between our perception of reality and someone else's. At the same time the character of Cécile, a tour guide, raises the question of how much visitors to the Louvre are there to appreciate art and how much they're just there to say they saw the Mona Lisa while not giving the time of day to the other works.

It's an interesting piece, as much a work of art criticism and engagement as it is a story. Matsumoto's art style manages to add to the air of magic realism about the piece, and this would be a really interesting work to incorporate into an art appreciate or art history class, or to read while you're taking one. Viz's hardcover release is gorgeous, but it is also really heavy, making it a little hard to read unless you put it down on a table. It's worth it, though, even if your wrists may feel like they're suffering for someone's art.

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Faye Hopper
Rating:

Cats of the Louvre is about a lot of things (alienation, emotional isolation, tradition) but it is foremostly about people's relationship with art, and the different reasons people might be attracted to it. Cecile, a tour guide, likes the Louvre most at night because it's quiet, allowing her to appreciate the galleries in perfect stillness and calm. In contrast, the night guard Patrick likes the hustle and bustle, the crowds, because he gets to see all the people from all over the world, come together in mutual appreciation. Sawtooth, a charcoal cat with sharp teeth, doesn't have time for beauty and daydreams because he has experienced the uncaring brutality of the outside world. He's there for safety. The other cats are there because their parents lived in the rafters of the Louvre. They have a legacy. And Snowbebe, our main character? Reality offers him nothing. But where there is only coldness and isolation in the real world, he can see alternate worlds inside the paintings. He hears the voices of those who have jumped into them and never left.

The Louvre isn't simply a museum, it is the largest testament to humanity's artistic achievements in the world; the exhibitor of its greatest, most powerful works. In the story and in our world, it is art. Everybody has a different reason for flocking to it; history, obligation, simple appreciation. But some people see it and are ensnared by it. Can never leave it behind. Cats of the Louvre is a story about these people (and felines). But there is a world outside the Louvre, isn't there?

There's a reason Snowbebe doesn't mature until he leaves the world of the paintings behind. Imagination is the world of children. Adulthood is the world of external concerns, of survival and anxiety. But the wonderful thing about Cats of the Louvre is that it acknowledges that beauty is everywhere. In the canvas we scrawl our thoughts and feelings upon. In the trees outside our houses. Reality and art are two sides of the same coin, after all. One is simply a reflection, an abstraction of the other. And one may grow, one may mature past the point where imagination and dreams are their world entire. But there is still beauty. There is still awe. There is still love and wonderment. All one needs do is listen.

Cats of the Louvre is a beautiful, moving, and artistically rich story about escapism, and the value therein. As someone who also lives in dreams, inside the canvas, I cannot get it out my mind. There are so many layers, so many things I want to talk about, so many questions yet unanswered. Like the paintings at the Louvre, it demands the most careful, loving consideration. If you too love art and can hear the paintings sing, you owe it to yourself to experience it.